Jerome Rico does a Tuck

I WAS floored when I first heard Tuck Andress play “Man in the Mirror” on his guitar. As one of my occasional music buddies would always say, “That music made my head spin!”

So when I stumbled upon Filipino guitar player Jerome Rico’s Guitar Shop album recently, I experienced deja vu. You see, in my itsy bitsy book of guitar greats, there are those who play guitar, and those that can play mind-blowing guitar. Tuck and now Rico are the latter. I can listen to both all night and, I can assure you, you’ll never get bored.

Guitar Shop is composed of covers and original arrangements of known classics. As this blog by Oliver Oliveros reveals, Rico’s jazz influence is evident.

All selections were re-arranged to match Jerome’s ingenious musical style, which is much influenced by great jazz instrumentalists — Tuck Andress, Tommy Emmanuel, George Benson, Dave Koz, Kenny G, Lee Ritenour, and David Benoit.

It is also apparent that Rico is schooled. He started playing guitar at 16 but later studied classical guitar at the University of the Philippines, where he eventually developed his own style. Like Tuck, Rico can dazzle you with his own rendition of “The Way You Look Tonight” or a nice arrangement of Sting’s “An Englishman In New York” or “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.”

For less than P300, this album is a good buy — that is, if you love listening to covers of known hits played by a lone guitar virtuoso.

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